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Abel William Bahr was a coal merchant and general importer born in China who became an important collector of Chinese art. Several books and catalogues have been published about his collection. His papers include numerous drafts and notes about his memoirs as a collector, correspondence with other collectors and photographs of Chinese art objects, from jade to pottery to paintings.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains manuscript drafts and notes for Bahr's memoir, written by Bahr himself and C.R. Cammell, who was also the editor of

The Connoisseur

magazine. Other papers include correspondence with collectors of Chinese art or other figures in the art world, such as Lord Kitchener, the King and Queen of Sweden, Walter Muir Whitehill, Kenjiro Matsumoto and Senator Theodore Francis Green, among others. The bulk of the collection contains approximately 300 photographs of different Chinese art objects, from jade figurines to pottery to paintings. Most of these photographs are unidentified, but some of them include marginalia that indicate that they were of Bahr's own art objects for publication in books or articles. Photographs which are identified point to art objects also belonging to Bahr. The photographs have been organized based on the object type in the photograph, such as painting, statue or figurine.

Arrangement

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 7 series:

Series 1

Memoirs, [1944-1956]

Series 2

Correspondence, 1919-1957 [bulk 1947-1957]

Series 3

Clippings, 1948, no date [bulk no date]

Series 4

Other Writings, no date

Series 5

Images, no date

Series 6

Catalog Images, 1935, no date

Series 7

Art Object Photographs, no date

Biographical Note

Biographical Note

1877

Born in Shanghai to German father and Chinese mother

Circa 1880s

Educated at St. Xavier's School in Shanghai

Circa 1894

Work as a clerk at a wholesale and retail coal merchant's office, left solely in charge during the first Sino-Japanese war, encouraged by backers to start his own business

1898

Goes into business with shipping friend, started the Central Trading Company

1900

Marries Miss Helen Marion Southey (daughter of Mr. T.S. Southey, in Hong Kong. Working at firm of Hopkins Dunn and Company. Begins construction on his first house, Fairview, outside the settlement on North Honan Road Extension, first son born[?]

1901

Recipient of Victoria Medal for his role as a gunner during the Boxer Rebellion (had joined the Shanghai Volunteers)

1908

Shanghai Exhibition of Chinese Art, which he helped to organize and which he loaned many pieces from his own collection. Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. Publishes a catalogue of the exhibit in 1911, "Old Chinese Porcelains and Works of Art in China: Being Description and Illustrations of Articles selected from an Exhibition held in Shanghai, November 1908"

1909

Begins his association with Lord Kitchener; travels with him through China

1910

Leaves permanent residence in China, moves to London, England

1911

Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Paintings from the Collection of A.W. Bahr, published by the Fine Art Society

1915

Applies to Foreign Office in London to go to America. (Involved in the art business; the war had stopped all such activities in London)

1927

Private printing of the catalogue, "Archaic Chinese Jades collected in China by A.W. Bahr, now in Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, described by Berthold Laufer"

1938

"Early Chinese Paintings from the A.W. Bahr Collection" by Osvald Siren, published by the Chiswick Press

1946

Leaves England, with his wife, daughter Edna, two sons and their wives and two granddaughters for Canada

1947

Metropolitan Museum of Art purchases Chinese paintings from Bahr, collection of archaic jades exhibited in the Royal Ontario Museum. The Met also publishes a portfolio of the painting, 'Ching Ming Shang Ho, Spring Festival on the River' which Bahr had donated to the museum

1948

The Met exhibits Bahr's Chinese paintings. Several Chinese art objects on loan to the Art Association of Montreal and exhibited in the new Far East gallery

1949

Tang figurine, paint cakes and Han pottery vase on display at the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology

1950

Donates Chinese ceramics to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

1951

Begins writing his memoir[?]

1952

Last visit to London

1954

Gets typed draft of memoir. Living in Ridgefield, CT, working with C.R. Cammell

1959

Dies

Administration

Processing Information

Processed by intern Evelyn Khoo, with the assistance of archivists Rachael Cristine Woody and David Hogge. Encoded by Rebecca Morgan, Summer 2012.

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

Related Material

Related Material

There are no known related materials at any other institution or historical society.

Provenance

Provenance

Penelope Jane Bahr donated her grandfather's papers to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives on November 12th, 2001.